Axxam and Cellectis bioresearch announce their collaboration to offer a new generation of cell based assays

January 17, 2014 – Axxam (Milan), a leading provider of discovery services including assay development for high-throughput screening, and Cellectis bioresearch (Paris), the cell engineering expert, have started a collaboration to offer to the Life Science industry an extensive range of integrated discovery services based on genomic engineering technologies.

Under the joint offering, clients will be provided with a one-stop-shop approach for the generation of cell-based assays through genomic engineering. Genes of interest will be modified using Cellectis bioresearch’s proprietary genome engineering technologies, after which functional cellular assays will be developed using Axxam’s expertise and technologies for cell line generation. Both the required gene modification and the resulting functionality change will be experimentally demonstrated. Finally, validated assays for screening and profiling experiments will be provided to the client. With the currently available genome engineering technologies virtually any gene, at any position, in any cell type can be addressed for a wide range of applications such as knock-in insertions, knock-out deletions, reporter cell line generations and others.

Stefan Lohmer, Chief Executive Officer at Axxam, commented: “Genomic engineering technologies will open a new chapter for the generation of cell-based assays. For the first time, any modification at the genomic level can be introduced into a cellular assay, thereby increasing significantly the repertoire for generating the most relevant assay format for a given target. We have been very impressed by Cellectis’ success-proven expertise in the genomic engineering field and are extremely pleased to join our complementary forces to present to clients this unique combination resulting in a new generation of cellular assays.”

Jean-Charles Epinat, Chief Executive Officer at Cellectis bioresearch, stated: “We are pleased to combine our expertise with Axxam’s to offer our pharma and biotech partners a complete solution for drug discovery. We have found in Axxam a first-class partner for cellular assay development and there is a perfect match between our two companies’ technologies and objectives, allowing us to further extend our market reach. This partnership positions us as a major player in cell line engineering for Life Science discovery.”